Tuber missing: Authorities search for student gone since Sunday float on Sacramento River

HAMILTON CITY — A mother and a father handed out hundreds of fliers Tuesday while authorities searched the Sacramento River to find a 20-year-old who went missing Sunday while tubing.

Brett Michael Olson, a Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo student from Lafayette, was last seen about 1 p.m. Sunday when he arrived at beer can beach. He was on the Labor Day weekend float with friends.

"This is my son," Michael Olson said Tuesday to Chico State University students. Instead of quickly crumpling the sheets, students studied the photo — many told the father they were sorry.

The father said it is out of character for his son to be out of touch with his friends.

Glenn County Sheriff's investigators searched the river Monday from the Irvine Finch River Access at Highway 32 downstream to the washout. After 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, deputies launched at Ord Bend to search snags and the shoreline upstream to the washout.

Olson came to Chico Friday night to visit Chico State friends and tube the river. He was supposed to go home Monday.

"All of our information right now is he was last seen safe on land," Glenn County Sheriff Larry Jones said.

Olson had been drinking alcohol but his friends said they didn't think he was "over the edge," his father said Tuesday. The Sheriff's Office received some reports that a man similar to Olson's description was seen walking into the brush north of the beach in the Pine Creek area, which they are investigating, Jones said.

"Best case scenario, we're hoping he is somewhere wandering around in the wilderness area and we'll be able to find him," Warren said.

A helicopter and an airplane scanned the Pine Creek area Monday and Tuesday, which the father was told is too difficult to search by foot.

"I've never been involved in anything like this but everyone has been incredibly helpful," the father said.

The young man knows how to swim, is in good health and has no serious allergies, his father said. He does not have his cellphone with him.

A number of fights broke out on the beach Sunday, but the father said his son is not a fighter. His family reported him missing Monday afternoon.

Elizabeth Olson stood near her husband Tuesday holding a self-made missing person posterboard, asking students to help them find their son.

They said they would stay as long as it takes.

Olson is about 6-foot-1, 170 pounds, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

"All possibilities are open, he could have met somebody, a girlfriend, we just don't know at this point," Jones said.